Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to state the concern today that I have about sport and recreation at the community level. I believe over the years, since 1970, it has suffered, and it has suffered as a result of the Arctic Winter Games. I think the Arctic Winter Games have become too big, too expensive, are held too often; and sport and recreation at the community level has, as a result, suffered. I think, especially in these times of fiscal restraint and the move towards community empowerment and the focus on the community as the source of all the things that we want to do, that it's time, once these Arctic Winter Games are over, to have a serious look at our involvement in this very costly enterprise that has become like a mini-Olympics. I think we're losing a lot of the good trades we used to have when I was a kid in the communities, where you had lots of competition, there were a lot of leagues, there were intercommunity competitions going on; and that has gone in the quest to get on the all-star team or to get on a team that may go to the Winter Games.

As we're telling people that we can't afford the government we do have, we're spending $7,000 to ship dogs around to go on dog races, or food for dogs. It puts us in a dilemma: where are our priorities? I think, as the honourable Member for Hay River said, we have to keep in mind what we want for our children. What do we want them to learn about sport and recreation and where do you learn these things the best? And where do all children get that best opportunity? That's at the community level. Only a very few will make it to the Arctic Winter Games, so I think we have to seriously look at our involvement in this enterprise. Thank you.